Contrasting effects of mu opioid receptor and delta opioid receptor deletion upon the behavioral and neurochemical effects of cocaine.

Conventional brain microdialysis was used to assess basal and cocaine-induced dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens of wildtype (WT) C57BL/6J mice and mice with constitutive deletion of ether mu- or delta-opioid receptors (MOR or DOR knockout [KO], respectively). Locomotor activity was assessed in these same animals. Basal locomotor activity of DOR KO was elevated relative to MOR KO, but did not differ from that of WT mice. DOR mice, but not WT or MOR KO, exhibited a significant increase in activity in response to an injection of saline. The acute administration of cocaine produced a dose-related increase in locomotor activity in the three genotypes. The locomotor activating effects of a low dose (10 mg/kg) of cocaine were enhanced in DOR KO mice whereas the locomotor activating effects of both a low and higher (20 mg/kg) dose of cocaine were reduced in MOR KO animals. Microdialysis studies revealed no difference between genotypes in basal DA levels. Acute administration of cocaine, but not saline, increased DA levels in WT and KO animals. Paradoxically, however, the magnitude of this effect was smaller in DOR KO as compared with that in either WT or MOR KO. These data indicate that constitutive deletion of either MOR or DOR results in contrasting effects upon responsiveness to cocaine, which is consistent with the distinct phenotypes previously described for these mutants.